Lately, I’ve been working mainly on improving the performance and connectivity of my nodes. In my spare time, I have encouraged people to adopt STEEM, while answering tons of questions through various communication channels and, as a hobby, getting rid of all kinds of abusers from steemit.chat.
<center>![Gandalf](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYxEvy638krGpjJifQS7DHysyUNk1kXNrUzgoAyZVgrhR/gandalfthegreypostsize.jpg)
<sup>[Gandalf the Grey](/@gtg) by @fukako</sup></center>
You might have noticed that I recently started having [fun with flags](/@gtg/fun-with-flags). No, actually it's not a fun at all. I know that I am really bad at curation but I can at least use my spare voting power to help the platform. I used to avoid flagging but the growing number of shameless abusers leaves me no choice.
As far as I remember, I started flagging when I spotted an abuser who impersonated @cheetah and posted comments warning about plagiarism (similar to the ones that the original @cheetah would post), but instead of a lin

# A Quick'n Dirty Summary
<div>
<div class=pull-right>
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRWi5csSXwiGT6jxvbM4RSenMetLTVpp7acfEAbgbu2zt/image.png)
</div>
## Dear friends,
<br>
Last Saturday's [Crypto Growth Forum](https://steemit.com/steempanel/@aggroed/the-panel-discussion-was-a-great-success) on [MSP-Waves](https://discord.gg/FDUjWvC) included a prominent panel of Steemit Witnesses:<br>
- @jesta, @timcliff, @blocktrades, @pharesim, @lukestokes. @elear,
- Steemit Inc. representative @andrarchy
- and amazing listeners such as @r0nd0n, @swelker101, @kittiegirl and @rainsa.
Thank you everyone for your time and explanations.
___
One of the things that both @lukestokes and @timcliff stressed was the need for educating users better - and that this wasn't just the duty of Steemit Inc. alone, but every Steemit account holder should take personal responsibility for educating themselves and others.
For us 'regular users', it can seem intimidating to delve into Whitepapers or Bluepapers of STEEM, Smart Media Tok

Comment Your Goals/Dreams/Visions/Innovation Ideas/Forgotten Aspirations/Noble intentions etc Below And I Will Tell You How To Bring It To Full-Blown Life On Steem, Starting With Your Steemit Posts

<html>
<blockquote>I will be getting back to my DM activities (steemit.chat, discord, facebook etc) again really soon!&nbsp;</blockquote>
<p>I used to be so-so-so active especially in the DMs and this may be very much unknown, except to many steemians.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Even as a minnow</strong>, this was much the case! I already started to be part of many steemians' journey as well as part of the making of many initiatives running on steemit till date.</p>
<p>Normally, its those lowly blogs of mine and the sound it creates; and people would connect to the very person of me through these blogs and <strong>perceive or feel something</strong> and they would visit me in the DMs and i would answer.</p>
<p>Normally, they will come around to ask very simple yet tactical questions <strong>e.g</strong> how do i become like you; to which i would usually answer;</p>
<blockquote><strong>To be like me, you will have to stubbornly be awesomest version of you!</strong></blockquote>
<p>Even those times as minnow, i wasn'

As Steemians who want to see this platform continue to grow and flourish along with the steem token, I feel it is our duty to elect witnesses who will not only serve as master nodes but also add to the development of the Seem/Steemit environment. Most people are able to run a node with a little but of research and the proper equipment, but Witnesses vying for the top spot on the steemit network are rewarded for there position and should be doing more for the community. We all have 30 votes to cast for the witnesses of our choice and these are the 30 most important up votes you will ever make on this platform. Witnesses are the leaders in this community and thus it is of paramount importance that we due our due diligence before casting our votes.
Until recently I had barely used my witness votes and I felt it was time to change that. I didn't know many of the [Steem Witnesses](https://steemit.com/~witnesses) and hadn't put in enough effort getting to know the people who keep this platform running. The first t

There has been much talk as of late about the problems on Steemit. Problems such as excess self voting, voting circles, bots, leasing STEEM, spam and plagiarism. All of these problems Steemit has created its self, because where money is involved so is greed. It is human nature.
I know people will say, oh Steemit isn’t about the money. But let me ask you a question. If there was no financial reward on Steemit, would we still see the levels of bot, self voting and voting circles that we see now?
One thing that’s common in a lot of the conversations is the initial distribution and mining of STEEM. I think it is safe to say that many people believe the initial distribution was limited to so few, it is now difficult to get a balance between Whales and Minnows. It’s taken me a while to understand what went on at the start, and also get my head around what is going on now. However this problem can be tied back to human nature and greed, and voting bots and voting circles. Why? because large Vests of

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It is challenging to make thirty different witness votes. It's even more difficult to match those thirty votes to an overall vision for the whole platform. In this article, I'm going to outline how I've recently decided to start allocating my witness votes and perhaps this might give you some ideas about how to approach witness voting.
I will go through who I currently vote for and why. I don't want you to agree with my choices - that is not the intent of this article - but thinking about a framework for thinking about votes is much richer if it includes working examples. My information is limited and imperfect, but I still have to make the best decisions that I can.
At present, between my account and the accounts that proxy to it, I represent only ~0.3 GV. That's not much in the grand scheme of things, but sufficient that selecting witnesses does deserve some effort.
The process begins with deciding on my vision for steem, deciding on categories that reflect my vision, apportioning numbers of votes to the

![](https://i.imgur.com/XwqKnEl.jpg)
Hi everyone - it’s been about two weeks since my last witness update so I’m due for another one, but I felt it was especially important to provide an update today due to the price movement of SBDs.
## Why the broken SBD peg is bad for Steem
As you all are surely aware the value of SBDs has shot up over the past few days and is currently sitting around $9 on coinmarketcap.com. It’s been having some pretty wild price swings and could likely be very different between the time of writing and when you read this.
While this is great for all of us who hold SBDs, I feel that it is very, very bad for the Steem platform in the long run if SBDs cannot maintain a fairly stable peg to $1 USD. But don’t take it from me, take it from Dan:
> A strong peg of Steem Dollar vs Dollars means the market will have a strong degree of confidence in the Steem Dollar. The more confidence the market has, the more value / demand there will be to hold Steem Dollars. This in turn means ther

<center><a href='https://d.tube/#!/v/blockbrothers/imhv929k'><img src='https://earth.i.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmSzbrgJXkJij8HuHHLUNWZaeUJZ1ojvBBYErmRm5LhSbD'></a>
<br><sup>Click the logo to start the video</sup></center><hr>
# Highlights this week (49)
------
- Launched our first App for the Steem blockchain called [Steemify](https://steemit.com/steemdev/@blockbrothers/steemify-is-live-get-it-in-the-app-store-now-for-free).
Get it from the app store: <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/steemify/id1290154477"><img src="https://steemitimages.com/DQmWPdFqXkrRZZ9xFnVjkfoNmYEXQRXd6FesJ1kAPFjkfmc/appstore.png"/></a>
- Moved up to witness rank #94
- Our witness node has not missed a blocked and gets 3 blocks a day!
- The Backup server is ordered and delivered. It's being installed as I write this. It's better than our current main, so we will swap them around the moment it's up and running.
Specs of the new server:
```
- Intel Xeon E3
- 2x 240GB SSD
- 32GB DDR3 ECC RAM
- 1gbit/s network
```
# Video:
------
@

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https://steemitimages.com/0x0/http://i.imgsafe.org/7f9d0453b5.jpg
Hello Everyone!
## Here is what I've been up to since my last witness post:
- I attended SteemFest! It was great to meet so many amazing Steemians in person :)
- I was a part of the "[STEEM Panel Discussion](/steempanel/@aggroed/the-panel-discussion-was-a-great-success)" on MSPWaves Radio, along with @jesta, @blocktrades, @pharesim, @lukestokes, @elear, and @andrarchy.
- I have been spending a lot of time reaching out to various exchanges to try and get STEEM (and SBD) listed. So far I don't have any news, but I continue to work hard on this effort! (As do several others.)
- I was also a guest on the Steemit Growth Forum, held on MSPWaves Radio.
- I was interviewed @terrybrock for his "Steemit Success" series, where I talked about my experience since I first joined Steemit, and my advise for new users on how to be successful. He did a great job on the interview! I highly recomend everyone check it out: [Steemit Success Series- @timcliff on Wh

<center>
<h2>Witness</h2>
---
![Blockbrothers](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmPAa9kkJRwc7XYKQV1ZSm3ynuDawARynzAbe3mCcRV3zF/image.png)
Today we installed our back-up witness server. It actually is going to become our main server, because we made some configuration tweaks after lessons learnt from installing our first witness server. The other one will then be reconfigured and then serve as our primary backup.
This server is also a dedicated server, hosted by [@privex](https://privex.io). They offer a great service, so we can highly recommend them.
We've made some changes to the size of the memory available to steemd. As the size of the blockchain is ever increasing, this should give us some margin for the time being. There's also a script in the making that will make monitoring and re-deploying this configuration to a new server a breeze. We'll make this open-source, when thoroughly tested, for everybody to use.
</center>
---
<center>
<h2>Steemify</h2>
---
![Steemify](https://

![excavators-1798683_1280.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRSiD3mocjCMquq1S15sMSZvKXAHmftXgbN7NKZn3Tgk6/excavators-1798683_1280.jpg)
[source](https://pixabay.com/en/excavators-danube-riverside-water-1798683/)
# Time Off
I've had to take some time off the last few days from steemit to catch up with my personal life. Unfortunately things like shopping, paying bills, & house cleaning don't take care of themselves. Someone asked me how I balanced my personal life with my work on steemit. The short answer is I don't and at some point my personal life snowballs and I have to deal with it.
# CryptoKitties
Okay... So... I'm the proud owner of a [Boggles.](https://www.cryptokitties.co/kitty/101823) thanks to @lgm-1 and his [CATURDAY NIGHT FEVER - CryptoKitty Giveaway! ](https://steemit.com/giveaway/@lgm-1/caturday-night-fever-cryptokitty-giveaway-ep-3) post.
# Keeping Steem/Steemit Clean
@mack-bot
With the price of SBD I'm trading it for STEEM to power up. @mack-bot also received a delegation from @crimsoncla

Today We Heal. We take our "Yes"! "The "No(s)" must stop!!! and not just one "Yes": "Yes, Yes, Yes.....Yes!"

<html>
<p>Let me brighten your day with colors same as you have brightened my days. It's not the best of days but i am alive. "Alive" is miraculous; even a privilege.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I don't get to sleep or sleep well but i still have memory of how sleep is and when sleep is right, peaceful and sweet; if we never get to wake up, we would never have known; because there is "unconsciousness" in <strong>sweet sleep</strong>.</p>
<p>I am awake and alive and though, today was a mix of tears and resolution, i cried and resolved.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I now shed tears like a man because everytime i have cried in the last growing years, i have resolved anew. In this post though, i speak like a babe cos i am letting loose a bit. I want to!</p>
<p>I have not had an outlet in ages. I have been too stiff. I will use this particular post to rest a bit. I will soothe you by its means and make you feel; it will pass through you and ease you and together we will feel good for today we live.</p>
<p>Take a break and see the colors:</p>
<p

<p>https://steemitimages.com/DQmeGfWPjHziQw8GvfHwbLoM41dqrdjy44guKLuN5xg1DLi/S113-00th.jpg</p>
<p>Question? How do we succeed on Steem? Answer: go to <a href="http://steem.guide"><em>steem.guide</em></a>, read the updated list of tutorials for Steem, and start applying what we learn there to our contributions on Steem!</p>
<h1><strong>Introducing Steem.guide</strong></h1>
<p> <br /><a href="http://steem.guide"><em>steem.guide</em></a> forwards to a new post each month on steemit.com featuring the most helpful Steem tutorials we have read and created. Will you help make this better by sharing links to the best guides you have found on Steem because we will include these in the next post?</p>
<p>Alternatively, access the <em>Steem</em> guides with the <em>spreadsheet</em> on <em>Airtable</em> at:</p>
<p><a href="https://airtable.com/shrF00NW4Z99WZX50/tblxbDgjhjN2Lu1jZ">https://airtable.com/shrF00NW4Z99WZX50/tblxbDgjhjN2Lu1jZ</a></p>
<p>https://steemitimages.com/DQmaEgJJs1bH9kP4kFbHWN5LtgH3xGTJvGSY4z5M8uS2MdA

As Steemians who want to see this platform continue to grow and flourish along with the steem token, I feel it is our duty to elect witnesses who will not only serve as masternodes but also add to the development of the Seem/Steemit environment. Most people are able to run a node with a little but of research and the proper equipment, but Witnesses vying for the top spot on the steemit network are rewarded for there position and should be doing more for the community. We all have 30 votes to cast for the witnesses of our choice and these are the 30 most important up votes you will ever make on this platform. Witnesses are the leaders in this community and thus it is of paramount importance that we due our due diligence before casting our votes.
Until recently I had barely used my witness votes and I felt it was time to change that. I didn't know many of the [Steem Witnesses](https://steemit.com/~witnesses) and hadn't put in enough effort getting to know the people who keep this platform running. The first th

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![@ura-soul witness header](https://i.imgur.com/GEb88uG.png)
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***The third update in my witness post series - Informing you of my recent activities and why you should add me to your list of witnesses you vote for.***
You can view my original witness application thread (from 22nd Oct. 2017) [here](https://steemit.com/witness-category/@ura-soul/ura-soul-witness-application) for more details about me and more about what witnesses do for Steem and Steemit.com.
I am currently being voted for by 2 of the top 20 witnesses: @ausbitbank and @timcliff - Thanks guys!
### Witnessing The Waves
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Wow, what a rollercoaster since my last witness update. I had to take some time away from Steemit posts for a while to work on projects for clients, but was still monitoring my witness server and the general moves in cryptoworld and on Steemit. Since I last posted I also lost and then regained my largest witness vote for political reasons - but that's the nature of voting and elections, so it's to be expe

I'm not sure you know this, but in the first 30 minutes after you publish a post, there is a reverse auction going on.
In layman terms, if you vote early, you get less curation rewards. In fact, you actually "lose" a part of your curation rewards, based on a linear discount, ranging from 100% to 0, in the first 30 minutes. The term "losing" is not appropriate, because what it's happening is that a percentage of what you would get, is redistributed back to the author.
So, for instance, if you vote 3 minutes after a post was made, 90% of your potential curation rewards will be redistributed to the author.
This rule was introduced in 2016 as a counter-measure against bots voting early and it seemed to work well. Because bots were front-runing each other, is seemed reasonable to discourage this race for curation rewards. And the rationale behind redistributing the discount to the author was: "if bots are fighting for a post, then the author should get more, right?".
But since the rewards algorithm changed f

The _Reports from the Witnesses_ aims to provide the community with a summary of what all the witnesses have been up to. Every week, I collect all of the reports from the individual witnesses and assemble them into a single aggregated report. New witness announcements and witness retirement announcements are included in the report as well.
Witnesses can continue posting their posts to the witness-category and/or witness-update tags, and I will assemble everything I find there. If I miss any reports, just let me know and I will correct it. If you want to direct message me a report via chat, that is fine too.
Historic Reports from the Witnesses can be found here:
https://steemit.com/created/reportsfromthewitnesses
So without further ado, I bring you the fifty first edition of 'Reports from the Witnesses'!
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# Reports from the Witnesses 2017-12-10
## @jesta - Witness Position #2
- <a href="/vessel/@jesta/vessel-0-2-0-interact-with-steem-